A GRAT START FOR BMW IN BRAZIL

And the German make have already built a solid margin in the Manufacturers’ championship.

In front of absolutely packed grandstands, crammed with enthusiastic fans who roared to cheer local hero Augusto Farfus, everything worked well for BMW who collected two 1-2-3 finishes, something that they had achieved only twice in the WTCC previously: at Oschersleben in 2005 and Valencia in 2006.

Jörg Müller and Augusto Farfus claimed one victory and one third place apiece, Andy Priaulx finished twice as runner up, which placed the three of them equal on 16 points.

Satisfactions for the other three manufacturers were little in the Brazilian meeting. SEAT Sport's Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller collected points in both races, meaning that they are the closest competitors to the BMW trio in the points.

Chevrolet saw the cars of Nicola Larini and Alain Menu immediately out of contention when they were caught in the pile up at the start of the first race. Robert Huff was placed a promising fifth in Race 1, but was also eliminated at the start of the second race in a collision with Alessandro Zanardi.

Alfa Romeo had even less luck, with both their drivers – James Thompson and Olivier Tielemans – eliminated in the Race 1 crash.

The Independents' Trophy is led by Pierre-Yves Corthals of Exagon Racing, who won the first race and finished runner up to Luca Rangoni in the second.

The FIA WTCC will resume on May 5th and 6th at Zandvoort, Netherlands.